The bucket bale spear generally relates to agricultural implements and more specifically to spear with a frame secured below the bucket of a loader. Farmers and growers raise crops of various kinds including hay, alfalfa, and cotton, among others that are formed into bales for storage, handling, and transportation. The bales usually bind the dried crops, such as hay, into a stackable form such as a rectangle or a round cylinder. Bales are generally made by a machine towed, or propelled, by the farmer, or grower, at the time of harvesting the crop, such as hay in the summer. The hay, once baled, becomes feed for livestock. The hay bales can then be loaded and transported for various uses and to many locations.
Round bales have seen increasing usage over the years. The round bales are formed as hay, or other crop, is collected in windrows and then rolled into a cylinder. The cylinders are then spaced along the path of travel of a baling machine, often towed behind a tractor. A farmer can leave the bales in place until needed or the farmer can move the bales. Bales can be collected and stored for the farmer's own use or sold to other users of the bales. However, a bale can weigh well over 2000 pounds.
Generally bales are moved using forklifts, cranes, and other material handling equipment. Such equipment though has proven expensive to members of the farming community and less suited to rugged conditions encountered in the fields. Farmers seek to utilize the equipment already on a farm in new ways. Farmers often put tractors and skid loaders to improvised uses. Generally tractors and skid loaders have bucket attachments upon the front of the equipment. The bucket generally scoops up material and lifts it to a higher height, often for dumping into a pile or a truck. As a lifting attachment, buckets can also move smaller bales, or portions of a bale, placed inside them by farm hands.